Day 31: Zhaoxing

We weren't quite sure what to expect of Zhaoxing before we arrived because Zhaoxing is a much larger Dong village. During the Oct 1st Golden Week, more than 10,000 visitors came to the village. So we braced ourselves and bit the bullet. Oh my, it was a good decision. We ended up staying for four days.













The village is an authentic living heritage, not just some place restored simply for the tourist dollar. The locals live in the village and work the farms. Katy and I trekked to two smaller villages further away in the mountains. Besides the locals, we were the only people on the trail. It was peaceful and beautiful. Rice terraces and small creeks run along side the trail. You could see the locals busy working their farms.









When we finished the trail, we would go back to our guesthouse for a hot shower and looked for dinner on the main street. It was conveniently set up. The food was good too, especially for a mountain village.









One trek we did was to Tang An, about two hours of hike from Zhaoxing. This is where we met Mr. Zhang, our unofficial tour guide for Tang An. We were chatting him up next to a pork vendor about the history of Tang An. He seemed very knowledgeable, so we worked out a deal for him to be our guide for RMB13 (US$2). Why RMB13? That is the price of 500g of pork (standard unit). After the tour, he invited us for lunch at his home. We had good discussions on various topics. One in particular was the beautiful aesthetic of the traditional Chinese writing. He is a scholar (and also an Internet shop owner).

Photos about Tang An:

Day 25: Rongjiang

The roads from Kaili to Rongjiang were the windiest we had seen in our trip. Before the bus departed the station, the driver started handing out plastic bags. The lady sitting in front of us asked for three bags for her daughter – not a good sign. On top of the windy roads, they were showing this cheesy variety Chinese show for the entire five hours. It was a real torture, especially when Katy and I understood the language.

At the 4-hour mark, the stink of smoke, sweat and vomit reached its peak. We felt nauseous and almost went for the plastic bag ourselves. By some miracle, we survived the final hour and arrived in Rongjiang. It was a close call.

The hotel (Qingfeng) recommended by Rough Guide was a dump. There was a bucket in the hallway to catch the leaking water. The toilet inside our room was leaking water as well. But we were just too tired and dizzy to look for another hotel.












Soon after checking in, we strolled around the main street, looking for a place to eat. Most restaurants were empty. While walking back to our hotel, we saw this restaurant under the bridge doing swell business. So we decided to check it out. We had to climb over a fence and walked through a farm to get there. After chatting with the owner, we were told that the house specialty was cow's penis (another local specialty in addition to dog meat). That was the last straw that broke our tired backs...

restaurant underneath the bridge








another loyal patron climbing over the fence for some cow's penis








Rongjiang is a developing city in a developing country, another concrete-and-tile city. Our hotel is located right in the smack of where the action is – a major intersection just off the bus station. At 6am, horns from trucks, buses and motorcycles were already busy waking everyone up. At 7am, there was a funeral procession with a full band. It was a circus.

bus station at Rongjiang ... doesn't it feel like people just want to escape from this city?








street outside bus station








Katy finally letting out her frustration

Day 24: Shidong

The scenery to Shidong was beautiful – mountains with rice terraces as far as your eyes can see. Our bus passed through numerous tiny villages along the way. This beautiful scenery was interrupted by the driver telling us to get off the bus and pointing to some houses in a distance. Standing in the middle of the road with our backpacks, we gauged at the distance and started walking.

Our first impression was not great. The streets were dusty and full of constriction materials (they were laying the pipes). After checking into our guesthouse, we went straight to the market by the river. Oh my, it was a sight to remember.












The market was more impressive compared to the one in Chong An. There were these huge silver crowns and necklaces (used in weddings) and beautiful embroideries. It was the first time I witnessed the clothes dyeing process. You buy some chunks of special woods or water buffalo skins (different types yield different colors) and white fabric, and take the raw materials to the river bank where you would find tanners busy at work. The whole process was like the movies about the medieval times.












This was a very much a local event as we were the only tourists in the market. This is the way the local Miao people have been buying their essential goods for the past hundreds of years, and I don't think it will change in the years to come.

Photos from left to right: 1) nicely packed live pigs to go, 2) special wood for dyeing the fabric, and 3) locals dyeing (or rather cooking) the fabric.

Day 22: Chong An

The main attraction for us at Chong An was the traditional market, where people from surrounding villages came to do their weekly shopping. We were quite surprised to find the goods and services offered in the market. Live fish, chickens, pigs, and dogs (a local delicacy) were a common sight. As for services, there were seamstresses, barbers and a dentist. Yes, a dentist.













In the evening, we went searching for a waterfall about 90-minute hike from our hostel. On the way there, we met a local who told us that the waterfall no longer existed. It was blown away to make path for the water pipeline. Fortunately we found a cold spring (28 degrees Celsius) and had a very nice dip with two locals. Picture yourself dipping in the cold spring inside a gorge with river flowing by and the sun slowly setting on the gorge...

Day 21: The Long Journey to Kaili

It's like the great escape from the Red Army in western Sichuan. After a 3-hour car ride from Tagong to Kanding, an 8-hour bus ride from Kanding to Chengdu, an 18-hour train ride from Chengdu to Guiyang and a 2-hour ride from Guiyang to Kaili, we finally arrived in Kaili, the jump-off point to the minority villages in Guizhou. We would spend the next couple of weeks touring the small villages and do some light trekking.

Kaili is a fairly modern city with many shops and hotels. It is a major service center for travelers from all directions, and was a good stop-over for us to rest our tired bodies. This is where we met Billy Zhang, the number 2 ranked tennis player in entire Kaili (his office is right next to a tennis court). When we met him, he was going to play a match. :) Actually he is the tour operator at ICTS (organizing trips for foreigners). Billy gave us very helpful information regarding the villages, the market days and the road condition. Thanks, Billy.

With Billy's advice, we embarked on our village tour the next day, hoping to catch the once-every-five-days market at Chong An and Shidong.

Day 19: Tagong

Originally after Zhonglu we planned to go to Bamei to look for a small village accessible only by a river boat. After arriving in Bamei (another bumpy ride), the locals told us that there was no such village. So we shared a ride with two Chinese girls to Tagong, known for its vast grassland.

Tagong is at the same altitude as Lhasa (3,700 meters). On the evening of our arrival in Tagong, we developed symptoms caused by high altitude sickness, i.e. pounding headache, nauseous. The old Tibetan woman running the guesthouse brewed us a tea with special Tibetan herbs. Katy and I just lied on the bed until the next afternoon.

On our last evening in Tagong, we managed to do some “horse-riding”, i.e. some poor soul walking and leading the horses which Katy and I were sitting on. Despite the cheesy act, the view from the top of the hill overlooking the grassland was amazing.

We spent only two days in Tagong and decided check out because the Chinese government had tightened the security measures in Western Sichuan (due to the upcoming Olympics). There were about 40 armed riot police officers marching up and down the main street of Tagong when we were there. The atmosphere was pretty tense. Many shops were closed and only a handful of tourists stayed.










Our meal options were fairly limited due to the shop closure. After a few pretty bad meals, we asked the guesthouse owner if we could eat with them on our last evening in Tagong. She asked us if beef, vegetable and some noodles were OK with us. Sure, we can do steak with greens and noodles on the side anytime. Finally a real Tibetan home cooking on the grassland! Oh boy, did we get our expectations high. The dinner was basically a soup with minced beef, bak choy and white noodles. We could barely finish ours while her second son had three huge bowls.

Our original plan was to go to Litang. From there, we could either go to Tibet or Yunan. Unfortunately some 250,000 troops were already stationed in Litang, and all foreigners (including Taiwanese) were forbidden to enter the city. So we decided to return to Chengdu and go to Guizhou/Guilin instead. That is the closest that we would be from Tibet for this trip. Along the way, we saw several armed checkpoints. When we entered Chengdu, two armed police officer came aboard for a quick inspection. We were glad to leave Tagong.

Photos from left to right: 1) & 2) prayer flags on top of a hill, 3) Tibetan man handing out prayer paper during our bus ride for good luck, 4) view of a surreal mountain in Bamei

Day 17: Zhonglu

I came across Zhonglu from someone's blog entry by chance. It is not even listed in the guide book. As it turned out, the two days we spent there were the most memorable so far.

Zhonglu is located in the mountains, about 25-minute drive from Danba. We stayed with a Tibetan family (Dongpuo), a wonderful host. A double room with ensuite toilet/shower and two meals cost only RMB50 per person (US$7). During one lunch, we had 11 dishes (not including the funny-tasting yak butter milk). It was incredible.









During one pleasant stroll around the town, a little girl was shouting to us from a tree, asking if we wanted some peaches. She threw us half a dozen peaches. On the way back, we met an old farmer, who invited us to his home and gave us several sweet plums. The peaches and plums were great snacks for our lazy afternoon reading.











There are still 88 watchtowers remaining in Zhonglu. The purpose of the watchtower was to guard against the barbarian invaders. At its height, there were around 5,000 watchtowers in this region. It was interesting to see the watchtowers scattered in the middle of the farms or next to houses. Also, watching the sun setting on Zonglu and the valley below was an amazing experience.












Tibetan women carrying 60kg of hay for the cows during winter










Gerong showing us his family treasure dating back to the Qing dynasty












Katy enjoying her favorite afternoon activity: reading and feeding the family cow apples













Female lama in a water fight